31 Days of Horror 2016, Day 12 : Jaws (1975)

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
-Chief Martin Brody

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton,

Trailer/Video: "See it...before you go swimming."

The premise: A maneating Great White Shark is terrorizing the beaches of the small town of Amity, and Police Chief Brody is doing what he can to deal with it.

My Familiarity With the Movie: C’mon, who HASN’T heard of “Jaws”? I’ve seen countless parodies and homages, and even went on the ride at Universal Studios.



Random thoughts as I watch it:

• That said, I’ve never actually seen the movie before. It’s apparently the original summer blockbuster, and it’s got Spielberg directing, so it’s gotta be good, right?
• A pretty blonde lady stripping naked. The movie has my attention.
• Welp, so much for her.
• I’m guessing the mayor is sorta like Walter Peck in Ghostbusters. You’re supposed to dislike him for being a jerk, since you really can’t hate the ghosts/shark for doing what comes naturally.
• That said, he does make a good point about opening up the tiger shark to check for human remains in front of the crowd (especially the grieving mother of the boy who was eaten)
• I don’t know much about sharks, but the science here seems dated.
• “Working class hero” Is that a John Lennon reference?
• Brody, Hooper, Quint. “Name a more iconic trio. I’ll wait.” (Me making that reference is gonna date this review, isn’t it?)
• I love the bit with the three of them bonding, especially when Quint starts about his past.
• Well, it’s not quite a happy ending, but it works.

The Good:

• The suspense. The shark is rarely shown in full until the end, and him being rarely seen combined with the music make for him to have a really menacing presence.
• The characters are mostly likable and well-written. Even the Mayor, who seems to be set up as greedy and evil still shows a human side.
• Plot is well-paced. It gets frantic and tense, but there’s also some more quiet scenes, giving the movie some “breathing room”.

The Bad:

• The fact that the movie has led to sharks being hunted to endangerment, I suppose. It’s not really directly the fault of the movie, though.
• So much of this has been copied by subsequent films that it might seem cliched to a modern viewer.

Best Scare: Surprisingly, for me, not any of the shark attacks, but the part where Hooper goes to investigate the wreck, and finds the corpse of Ben Gardner.

What Did We Learn Today? I learned that if you bring wine, it’s okay to start eating food off someone else’s plate. (Also, that Bryan Singer’s production company, “Bad Hat Harry” is named after a line in this movie.)

Recommended? Absolutely. It’s a great film.